Traditionally, in the production of milk products such as cheese, butter etc., the characterising flavours are developed during fermentation of the milk source with bacteria.
In recent years, novel flavouring agents which can be added to milk products for taste improvement have been developed. These flavouring agents are traditionally obtained by treating a milk source with enzymes, micro-organisms etc. For instance, a number of publications describe fermentation of a milk source with micro-organisms and enzymes such as lipases, proteases etc. to produce aromas which can be isolated and used in the manufacture of flavoured milk products such as cheese, milk, fermented milk etc. Amongst these publications are CA 1220075, EP 137536, JP 2003-250482, JP 3127962, JP 5049385, JP 2002-142713, JP 5091851, JP 58043755, JP 6125733, JP 64002549, EP 1053689, EP 1186244, U.S. Pat. No. 3,858,492, JP 2004-267126, JP 6319448, U.S. Pat. No. 6,635,303 B1, JP 2005-151895, JP 3175978, JP 2004-236638, JP 4169166, JP 9037735, U.S. Pat. No. 3,975,544, and WO 0147366. The flavours thus obtained are described as “dairy” flavours and therefore act as flavour enhancers to dairy products.
However, there are limited reports on using a process similar to that described above in order to provide flavours distinct from “dairy” flavours such as, for example, chocolate, fruity flavours etc.
WO 02/00845 describes a way to obtain chocolate-flavoured fermented products by fermenting a milk source with a mixed micro-organism culture. This method is however of limited scope in terms of the flavours obtained and in terms of the applications.
In order to achieve a variety of different, distinct flavours, artificial synthetic flavourings are normally added to the milk products. The use of artificial flavourings is quite often linked with a negative impression by the consumers.
There is thus a need to provide a wide variety of flavours in a natural way which can be used in a wide range of foods, and which thus avoids the use of artificial flavourings.